


Car Share - Sunday Morning

by EightiesChick



Series: A Change of Destination [5]
Category: Peter Kay's Car Share (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 09:34:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15946619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EightiesChick/pseuds/EightiesChick
Summary: John has a surprise for Kayleigh,  but she still doesn't seem to be herself.





	Car Share - Sunday Morning

All the time John and Kayleigh were getting dressed she was trying to find out what he was up to. All he would say was “nothing,” and “how is it a surprise if I tell you?”

In the end Kayleigh relented and resigned herself to not knowing. She trusted John but she was still itching with curiosity. 

It was approaching half past seven when they vacated the room and headed to the reception with Kayleigh’s bags from the last few days. As they got there, John asked Kayleigh to grab some ‘grub’ from the breakfast buffet while he went and loaded the car.

As he went outside to the car park, he bumped into Cath Hilton who had parked a couple of spaces down from John and had just finished loading some boxes into her boot.

“Alright Cath?” John started, as he put Kayleigh’s bags on the floor next to his car.

“Morning John, you're up early. I thought you'd still be in bed.”

As John smiled in response his as cheeks flushed the colour of a tomato. 

“Asleep John,” Cath started, trying to ease John's embarrassment. “I just meant that it's barely seven thirty on a Sunday morning. Is Kayleigh still asleep. Is she feeling any any better.”

“Yeah, she seems okay now, thank you.” John hesitated before continuing. 

“Cath, can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” she replied, kindly. 

“How has Kayleigh been? On this course, like? She were in a right state when I got here yesterday. Really doubting herself. I think she feels like she's made a mistake with this promotion.”

Cath looked at John, confused. 

“John, I don't know what to say… “

“Oh, right…” John said, disappointed. 

Cath reached out her hand and gently rested it on John's arm, reassuring him. 

“No, John, I didn't mean it like that. I don't know what to say because she couldn't be more wrong.”

“Really?” He asked, a swell of pride beginning to run through him.

“John, she’s my star pupil. She's a natural at it, I just feel bad that we didn't actually encourage her to do it much sooner.”

“That's a relief, thank you, Cath.”

“There’s nothing to thank me for, “ she said as she removed her hand from John's arm. 

“So, what happened yesterday then?” John asked. 

“I really don't know, she didn't seem herself all day. I thought something had happened or you two might have had a fight. She seemed really distracted.”

Cath nodded in the direction of the hotel entrance. John turned to see Kayleigh walking toward them with her well stocked Mary Poppins handbag on her shoulder and carrying to large cups of tea in takeaway cups. 

John turned back and opened the boot to his car. 

“Please don't say anything,” he asked Cath quietly as he loaded the luggage into the car. 

“Of course not,” she smiled.

“Oh Cath, one more thing,” he began as he closed the boot to the car. “I was gonna ring you in the morning, could you put Kayleigh and me down for a few days leave starting from now? We'll be back in on Thursday.” 

He tapped his nose, instructing cath not to say anything. She nodded slightly, smiling her acknowledgement.

Cath turned to Kayleigh as she reached the car.

“Hiya Kayleigh” 

“Morning Cath.”

“Here y’are,” Kayleigh said as she passed one of the teas to John. 

“Oh, thanks love, I could murder this.” he said before taking a sip. 

“Are you feeling better now Kayleigh? I was worried about you yesterday.” Cath asked, genuinely concerned. 

“Cath, I'm so sorry…”

“There's nothing to be sorry for,” Cath said, trying to reassure her. 

“I've not been sleeping since we've been here and my head just started feeling worse as the day went on.”

“As long as you're feeling better now, that's the main thing.”

“Much better, thank you, Cath.”

“Right,” John interrupted, “I really don't mean to be rude, but Kayleigh and I need to be making tracks.”

“No, not at all, I'll let you two get on.”

“See you Monday,” Kayleigh said as John turned, silently pleading with Cath not to say anything.  
“Absolutely,” she said as she gave Kayleigh a hug. “See you Monday.”

 

The hotel was in a small village, miles away from any motorway or major A road. It took a good forty five minutes for them to reach the A1M, by which point Kayleigh had drifted off to sleep. 

Two and a half hours into the journey and Kayleigh was still out for the count. In some ways, John was relieved as it made it easier to keep the surprise a little bit longer, but, at the same time, he wished she would hurry up and wake as he was desperate for something to eat from her T.A.R.D.I.S. of a handbag. He just didn't have the heart to wake her. 

A short while later, John slowed the car down to comply with the 50 miles an hour speed restrictions which had been imposed on the carriageway due to roadworks. As he slowed, a silver Audi sped past him doing almost double the permitted speed and weaving in and out of traffic, driving like a lunatic. 

“What an effin’ tosspot. He's the bloody reason accidents happen.” John said to himself. 

“Hmmm,” Kayleigh mumbled as she began to stir. “what’d you say?”

Kayleigh groaned as she stretched as best she could in the space she had in the passenger seat. 

“Nothing love, just idiot drivers.”

“Where are we?” she asked. Looking out of the window. She didn't recognise where she was, but motorways did tend to all look the same. 

“Shouldn't we be almost home?”

“Still on the motorway. Kayleigh love, grab something out your bag would you, I'm wasting away over here.”

“Oh my God, John I'm so sorry, you must be starving. How long was I asleep for?”

Kayleigh picked her handbag up from off the floor and began to rummage and take items out of her bag, telling John what each one was as she removed them. 

“Banana, apple?”

“Seriously?” John was definitely not in the mood for fruit. 

“Maybe not.” she said, putting them back in her bag. “chocolate croissant,” 

John, hopeful there would be more in the offering, slightly turned his nose up at it. As he did Kayleigh took out a small box of cereal from an eight box multi variety pack. 

“Sugar puffs?”

“God no, and don't go opening them in here either. I can't bear to eat them now. Just reminds me of monkey piss.”

“Awww, our little stowaway.” she said. Remembering fondly. 

“Don't be awwwing it like that,” he said, incredulously.

“Like what? He was cute?” she protested.

“Were you actually there? You do remember the fight it gave and the hassle we had trying to get it in the car?”

“He was just scared John, wouldn't you be?”

“I bloody well was, thought it were going to take my nose off!”

Kayleigh stifled a little giggle as John rubbed the top of his nose. 

“So, that's a no then for the Sugar Puffs?”

“Yes, definitely a no, and besides the amount of food that's in that box wouldn't be enough to feed a six year old.”

“Fai point. Did you ever get those multipacks when you were younger? We always tries to sneak two boxes into a bowl. Have bit of a mix and match.”

“I don't think we ever did. We always had cornflakes and weetabix and toast and that were pretty much it. On a Sunday me mum would sometimes do us a cooked breakfast. If she did that then she'd do a roast for teatime instead of at lunch.”

“My mum bought those multipacks for a while, but not for very long. She soon gave up after the arguments it would cause.”

“Arguments?” John asked, wondering why cereal would cause a disagreement. 

“Hell yeah, we would always fight over who wanted what. We would each want the coco pops. And four or five of the boxes would be the really cool cereal… “

“Cool cereal?”

“Yeah, you know, your coco pops, rice krispies that sort of thing and then there'd be your healthy one like, what was it called, Start or something. The other thing was that they used to come in boxes of 8.”

“And?”

“Well, there were three of us, me, Mandy and Our Kieran, so there was always a day when one of us either had to have some of me mums bran flakes or a slice of toast. After a few weeks of getting them mum realised it was futile and was causing so much hassle so she reverted back to the family size boxes of coco pops.”

“Wow, my mum would never have let us have chocolate cereal for our breakfast, talking of which, you gonna get something out that bag or what?”

Kayleigh rummaged a bit more and grabbed a bacon roll which she had put together and wrapped in a couple of paper serviettes. 

“Here y’are, knew it was in here somewhere.” she said as she passed the roll to him. 

“Now this is more like it, none of that sugar puffs or chocolate rice krispie shit.”

With one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding his sandwich, he, and his growling stomach, were relieved to be eating something. As he took his bite, Kayleigh put her bag back the floor. 

“You not having anything?” He asked, concerned. He knew she hadn’t eaten and she would usually be famished by now. “You should eat something.”

“I will in a bit. I'm okay at the moment.” Kayleigh said as she leaned back in her seat and resting her head back. 

John looked across at her. 

“Are you okay? You don't still have a headache do you?”

“A bit, but it's probably just where I fell asleep.”

“... or not eaten anything?”

“Alright dad,” she teased as she reached forward and took the banana from her bag. She sat back in her chair and began to peel it. As Kayleigh began to eat the banana, she started to look out the window. 

John noticed the time as the car reached the end of the speed restrictions and roadworks. John put his foot back to the pedal bringing the car back up to seventy and then added a couple more miles per hour for good measure. He was cutting things fine and was hopeful they would arrive on time. 

As Kayleigh looked out the window, she was starting to get confused by the fact that she had no idea where she was and that all of her surroundings were completely alien to her. She assumed that for the time they had been travelling that they should have been home already, and with that in mind, she should at least see a landmark she knew. 

She was about to ask John the question when they went through a tunnel. Now she knew he was definitely up to something and as the car reached the other side there was a sign, one which said that drivers would need to turn left to go to Canterbury or drive straight on for Dover or Folkestone. 

John noticed it to and stayed quiet, assuming Kayleigh’s questions would start at any moment.


End file.
